


Cooking up Christmas

by AlNiCa



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Magic, Christmas, Christmas Presents, M/M, Shiro Tries His Best
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-28
Updated: 2019-12-28
Packaged: 2021-02-25 23:47:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,626
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21993973
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AlNiCa/pseuds/AlNiCa
Summary: On their fourth Christmas together, Shiro tries his best to brew a potion that he's positive will be the best gift he's ever given Keith before.
Relationships: Keith/Shiro (Voltron)
Comments: 5
Kudos: 24





	Cooking up Christmas

**Author's Note:**

> This is my Sheith Secret Santa gift for @/voidslantern on twitter!! I hope you enjoy!! ❤️

Shiro shuffled into the building’s common room at 3 am, peak brewing time, clad in the matching onesie that Keith had gotten them both (as per tradition) and arms full of ingredients he’d been tirelessly scouring the nearby city for weeks to collect.

Though almost everyone went home over the winter break to visit family or get some part-time work in the communal apartment lounge was still cluttered with holiday mess. There were two trees decorated in the corners which forced the couches to be clumped together in the center. Various strings of lights hung all across the ceiling, some dangling down and hitting Shiro’s onesie hood as he worked his way through the maze. Some drunk juniors even enchanted a small train set to run across a couple of connecting shelves in the back of the room. It made the area feel warmer but made being careful with extremely precious cargo much harder.

Once reaching the coffee table right in front of the cracked TV, he gently began to set down the stash he had in his arms, not wanting to accidentally break a jar or crush a mushroom in the process. 

He was determined to surprise Keith this year with the best present ever. Usually, he somehow ruined the surprise (by burning their best pots and pans trying to bake him his favorite meatloaf) or made a gift that just didn’t feel like it was _ the _ gift (Keith said he loved the handmade blanket no matter how many holes were in it from Shiro’s lack of talent with crochet needles). He’d never been good at gifts, his family could attest to that, but Keith deserved the best. And this year he was going to succeed in giving him the best. 

But… It was Christmas Eve and he had yet to put together his present. 

They shared an apartment, which made trying to brew something without the other noticing extremely difficult. Keith usually stayed up until the ass-crack of dawn either playing video games, painting in their living room with as little light as possible as not to wake Shiro, or (not so) quietly baking his cares away. As not to give away that he was trying anything, he had to suffer through hours of fake sleeping in his room while trying not to actually fall asleep. 

The potion he was making for his best friend wasn’t necessarily a hard one, or one that took a long time to brew, but contained a lot of hard to find ingredients. Dragon nails and unicorn spit weren’t particularly common in their region of Canada and he shivered thinking back to what he went through to procure everything he needed.

Shiro sat back to look around at everything laid out before him, once again wondering if this was, in fact, a horrible idea. 

He checked his phone, 6 more hours before Keith would wake up and they’d exchange presents over pancakes as they had for the past 3 years. Too late to change his mind and try to think of a less risky gift. 

Shiro went to work clipping and dicing the ingredients, adding the appropriate amounts to follow the recipe he snuck out of his Professor’s personal library two months prior. He was sure he’d have gotten caught by now but by some luck, Professor Holt still had no idea one of his extremely valuable and expensive textbooks was missing. 

The room began to smell strongly of burnt peppermint and lavender, an odd mix that told Shiro he was on the right track. He stoked the small fire he’d created under his cauldron, trying hard not to get anything on the floor or furniture around him. The school had insurance that just about covered anything magic-wielding 20-somethings could possibly do, but Shiro wasn’t in the mood to explain why there was a giant burn mark in the carpet. 

In the time it took to wait for the potion to brew, he beat 4 levels on candy crush (he wasn’t the best), did 3 sets of jumping jacks, and silently screamed into the mirror on the far wall - all to try and keep himself awake. But a short two hours later it was done and all he needed to go was let it cool a bit and bottle it up for the morning. 

He hunched over his cauldron, excited and pleased with his success, ready to complete the final step when… 

“What are you doing up?” 

Shiro jumped, throwing the text across the room and tipping over all of his hard work. He could see it all flow onto the carpet in slow motion. Weeks of scouring the streets of the nearby city to find all of the obscure ingredients. 

Only to be ruined by the giftee, who he normally would have heard walking down the stairs if he wasn’t already half asleep. 

“Oh, fuck!”

He heard Keith swear from behind him and take off for the closest supply closet to look for something to clean up the mess. Normally people would react, but Shiro was so exhausted and shocked by what just occurred he’d barely blinked in the past minute and a half. 

Keith came to kneel down next to him and picked up the cauldron to start dabbing away the mess. 

“Shit. I’m so sorry, Shiro. I thought you heard me come down. What are you doing awake so damn late?”

Shiro, past the point of complete exhaustion with the world’s largest under-eye bags, finally processed the scene in front of him and… started giggling. 

Keith stared on in confusion, hand still absent-mindedly working to dab the carpet as he looked at Shiro like he’d finally lost it. 

“Shiro?”

He only laughed harder. Tears coming from his eyes. Shiro couldn’t tell if he was even upset or not. His stomach even started to hurt.

“That was…” he started heaving in air through his fit of laughter, “That was your Christmas gift.”

Keith looked at the now-empty cauldron and completely ruined carpet, “Oh no… Shiro…” 

Shiro wiped his eyes on the sleeves of his onesie and sighed, “It’s alright, not your fault.”

Keith picked up the mop and bucket he found in the closet, “Let me help you clean this up?”

Shiro smiled, “That’d be great, thanks.”

They deep-cleaned the carpet as best as they could but years of abuse from barely-adults could only be saved by so much soap and scrubbing. It took about an hour but once done they both plopped on the ancient couch together and gave a sigh of relief. 

Shiro picked up his phone, “Fuck, it’s already 6 am.”

Keith hummed, “Want to just have an early breakfast?”

“No.”

Keith looked over, raising an eyebrow in question.

“I want to sleep forever.”

He stood up and reach his hand out to Shiro, “Come on, I can’t make pancakes without you.”

Shiro could feel his cheeks getting warm as he took Keith’s hand and was guided up the stairs and back into their apartment. All the supplies were ready in their fridge so they went to work mixing up the batter and heating the pan. 

Mid-flip Keith cleared his throat.

“So…”

Shiro looked over to see Keith looking slightly flustered, an unusual look on his usually cool, calm, and collected friend. He wouldn’t meet his eyes as he talked.

“So… the ingredients you got…”

“Oh,” Shiro leaned against the counter and rubbed at the back of his neck, “Yeah I… I was working on a special potion I found that I thought you’d like. I borrowed it from one of Professor Holts’s books. It… this is going to sound silly, but it’s supposed to let you talk to animals. I know everyone kind of pokes fun about how you won’t name your dog because you want him to tell you his name so I thought… ha, ya know.”

Shiro watched as Keith’s face went on a journey from listening intently, intense processing, to pure confusion. He tried to backtrack, explain how dumb it probably was and how sorry he was for thinking of such a foolish thing as Keith slowly turned off the stove, placed the pan aside, and walked over to corner him at the counter. His gaze was so intense, it honestly scared him a bit.

“Shiro, when was the last time you took Latin?”

He was taken aback by the question, not at all what he was expecting from the dramatic body language Keith was giving off, “...uh, probably not for a couple of years.”

Keith closed his eyes and sighed, “That’s what I thought.”

“Why?”

“That’s not what the spell was for, Shiro.”

“How do you know? You didn’t even read it.”

Keith moved closer, “Because I know what those ingredients are needed for.”

Their faces were so close now, Shiro’s heart was racing. He was so confused but this moment felt like the beginning of some of his favorite  ~~wet~~ dreams.

“What are they used for?”

Keith had a smirk on his face as he leaned in to whisper in Shiro’s ear. His face must’ve been bright red as Keith pulled back, taking Shiro’s hands in his and pulling him from the counter.

“Oh… oh god. I. Oh god. I didn’t know. I’m so…”

Keith put a finger to Shiro’s mouth, “Shh, it’s fine. No need to apologize. I actually… have a bottle in my room already. If you wanted to see how it works.”

“Wha-wha-what what wait what?”

Keith winked as he pulled Shiro towards his room.

“Buh-but wait, I don’t. I don’t want this to be a one-time thing.”

Keith smiled and laughed, “Don’t worry big guy, I had plans to finally ask you out today.”

“Oh. Oh well. Well in that case. Lead the way.” 

**Author's Note:**

> And that’s the story of how much more than Shiro’s heart grew three times its size that day. 
> 
> Merry Christmas y'all!!!
> 
> If you ever need anything tagged please feel free to let me know.
> 
> Come say hi!  
> Twitter - AlNiCa_  
> Pillowfort - alnica


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